Organizing Against Corruption

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Leviticus 7 Listen: (5:13) Read: Acts 4 Listen: (5:15)

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Leviticus 8 Listen: (5:06) Read: Acts 5 Listen: (6:49)
Read: Leviticus 9 Listen: (3:18) Read: Acts 6 Listen: (2:35)

Scripture Focus: Leviticus 7.35-36

35 This is the portion of the food offerings presented to the Lord that were allotted to Aaron and his sons on the day they were presented to serve the Lord as priests. 36 On the day they were anointed, the Lord commanded that the Israelites give this to them as their perpetual share for the generations to come.

1 Samuel 2.12-17

12 Eli’s sons were scoundrels; they had no regard for the Lord. 13 Now it was the practice of the priests that, whenever any of the people offered a sacrifice, the priest’s servant would come with a three-pronged fork in his hand while the meat was being boiled 14 and would plunge the fork into the pan or kettle or caldron or pot. Whatever the fork brought up the priest would take for himself. This is how they treated all the Israelites who came to Shiloh. 15 But even before the fat was burned, the priest’s servant would come and say to the person who was sacrificing, “Give the priest some meat to roast; he won’t accept boiled meat from you, but only raw.”

16 If the person said to him, “Let the fat be burned first, and then take whatever you want,” the servant would answer, “No, hand it over now; if you don’t, I’ll take it by force.”

17 This sin of the young men was very great in the Lord’s sight, for they were treating the Lord’s offering with contempt.

Reflection: Organizing Against Corruption

By John Tillman

Leviticus introduces  “organized religion” to God’s people. People introduced corruption.

The Bible’s first “priest” is the mysterious Melchizedek, to whom Abraham gave a tithe of all his plunder after a battle. Other than that one moment, we don’t read of God-followers in the Old Testament seeking God through priests. They went to God directly.

Yet, in Leviticus, God instituted a system of worship managed by a specifically-called group of people. The priests’ first jobs were all physical in nature. They made the sacrifices, divided and placed the animals on the altar, disposed of the waste, and maintained the Tabernacle and its furnishings with the help of their tribe, the Levites.

In return for this service, God gave them a share of the food offerings that were not burned up. Eventually, the priests’ role expanded to teaching and interpreting the law and ministering to spiritual needs through prayer, counsel, and charity.

Centuries later, Eli’s sons, Hophni and Phinehas, broke the regulations in today’s passage by taking more meat than designated and violating the order of the ritual. (1 Samuel 2.12-17). In addition, they violated young women who worked at the Tabernacle. (1 Samuel 2.22-23) God put Hophni and Phinehas to death in a battle in which the Ark of the Covenant was lost. God punished not just the individuals but the entire system of worship.

Any organization is vulnerable to corruption, even ones instituted by God. Priests, prophets, kings—none of them are invulnerable.

Ezekiel prophesied against wicked shepherds, the kings of his day, that abused power, enriched themselves, and increased the poor’s suffering. God stood “against the shepherds” and pledged to be the good shepherd the people needed. (Ezekiel 34.1-4; 10-16)

Corruption is one of the primary reasons “organized religion” has a poor reputation. Wherever there is corruption in the system, God shares the disgust of those who discover corruption and sets himself against those who would deny it or perpetuate it. We shouldn’t be shocked when God punishes not just corrupt individuals, but organizations.

Those in Christ are part of a specifically-called group of people, the Church. We are “organized” into Christ’s body and called to meet spiritual needs through prayer, counsel, and charity.

We cannot ignore or overlook corruption but we also cannot abandon our posts. Despite, and even because of, corruption, we must fulfill our calling faithfully. We must organize against corruption.

We honor Jesus, our high priest, when we oppose corruption and serve honorably.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer

Worship the Lord, O Jerusalem; praise your God, O Zion;

For he has strengthened the bars of your gates; he has blessed your children within you. — Psalm 147.13-14

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

Read more: Offal Leaders

Malachi describes a de-commissioning…feces from the animal would be smeared on their faces, representing impurity and death.

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No Princes :: Readers’ Choice

Selected by reader, Jason from Texas
If our faith in God is based on people, then it becomes like a reed in the wind, swaying with every economic downturn and electoral cycle.

Scripture Focus: Psalm 146.3
Do not put your trust in princes,
    in human beings, who cannot save.

Reflection: No Princes :: Readers’ Choice
Originally published July 11th, 2019
By John Tillman

How many believers veil their trust in men as trust in God? This can cause problems in two ways. 

In the first, it can cause otherwise faithful people to bend over backward to defend a corrupt leader because to admit that the leader failed or that corruption was present would reflect badly on God’s work. Or it might even mean that the man was never “God’s man” in the first place and we had been duped by him. Unable to admit this, we rally to support and deny any accusation or attack, deaf to evidence or appeal.

The second is, in a way, the equal and opposite reaction. It causes people to believe that they must abandon faith in God because of a leader who broke faith or gave into corruption or abused his power. (It is almost always a man who does this…) Unable to separate their faith from the identity of the leader, they abandon faith.

In both of these cases, the followers’ faith was never in God in the first place.

Let us pray using some of the words of Psalm 146, asking God to protect our faith from even resting a little finger on the unworthy foundation of princes or kings or leaders. May our faith be built solely and solidly upon Jesus, his cross of suffering, and his glorious resurrection.

No Princes
Do not put your trust in princes,
    in human beings, who cannot save.

The princes of this land cannot save us, nor do they intend to.
Their fine bracelets are shackles.

When their spirit departs, they return to the ground;
    on that very day their plans come to nothing.

Even the greatest of princes will die, will fall, will fail.
Their plans will come to nothing and that nothing will come to those who trusted in them.

There is only one prince we must serve—the Prince of Peace…

He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry.
The Lord sets prisoners free
The Lord gives sight to the blind,
The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down,
The Lord loves the righteous.
The Lord watches over the foreigner and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.

May we befriend the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow.

And may we live to see the ways of the wicked frustrated, the chains of the prisoners fall, the blind lead us on with new sight, the bowed down rise up to run.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting
Out of Zion, perfect in its beauty, God reveals himself in glory. — Psalm 50.2

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Today’s Readings
1 Samuel 2 (Listen – 6:09), 
Romans 2 (Listen – 4:13)

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